YOUR CART

Tragedy

This TED Talk that we listened to was quite interesting. In it, the presenter argued that humans do not really have the most control over the choices that we make and the things that we choose. Outsiders can influence decision making. Here is a link to a website that talks about how corporations can manipulate your decisions. When human beings are presented with two choices that are the same except for some slight thing, say a trip to Paris versus a trip to Rome, it all comes down to personal preference to dictate which option they will choose to take. However, when a third option is included that is similar to but of slightly lesser value than one of the options, people will gravitate to the "better choice".This is an interesting fact, and it relates to tragedy. Sometimes, not hearing about a certain thing is a good thing. For example, in Oedipus if the prophecy had not ever been revealed to Oedipus, he would not have left his home and more than likely would not have ever met his birth mother or birth father. Similarly, if Jocasta had not heard the prophecy she would not have attempted to have her son abandoned and murdered, and Oedipus would have been able to grow up with his real family. If he had grown up with his mother acting as his actual mother, I would think that he would be quite a bit less likely to sleep with her. But. as people, we make rash decisions based on any extra information that we come across. This is not always a bad thing, but, at least in today's climate, it usually is not a good thing either. People make dumb choices believing that they are doing the correct thing, and this is a driving force in the tragic art form. It is interesting that this TED talk can relate to tragedy, as it does not seem like it would straight out of the gate.